What did I miss??

Several students have asked what they missed:

First, if you are missing ANY of the article of the weeks, they are located here:
PINK article of the week (students should have ANNOTATED the article. Here are directions for annotation).
How to WRITE the article of the week paper:
Directions for article of the week are these:

•  Read the entire article
• MARK the article and comment, make connections, question, and predictions, etc. as you read. This is called annotating.
• Talk about the article with someone else.
•  Write a paper about the article. 

Green Article of the Week (students should have ANNOTATED the article. Here are directions for annotation).

How to WRITE the article of the week paper:
Directions for article of the week are these:

•  Read the entire article
• MARK the article and comment, make connections, question, and predictions, etc. as you read. This is called annotating.
• Talk about the article with someone else.
•  Write a paper about the article. 

Lego Leg Article of the Week (students should have ANNOTATED the article. Here are directions for annotation).

Answer the questions on the article. Write 2 good paragraphs.

Beyonce, Celebrities for Sale. 

There was NO PAPER required for this assignment. Students were asked to bring a celebrity endorsed product, picture of a product, or a celebrity endorsed advertisement. There is NOT a way to make up this assignment. Students either brought the homework, or they did not. They were told ahead of time that was the way this assignment worked. Students who did not bring this as homework will have to come to flex prior to the end of the year to make up the points they are missing for this homework.

Question of the Day

On the YELLOW CARD

Write:
A book recommendation that Mrs. Phippen should have in the classroom for you to read.

Would you like to have Scholastic book club orders?

The Legacy Project

You will create 3 items for this project:

✿ The first item has a personal motto on it. It can be in the shape of a tombstone, grave, marker, flag, shield, t-shirt, or uniform, but it must bear your “crest” with the motto.
✿ The second item will be footsteps. You will trace your own footsteps, and you will have a flip chart of footsteps. Inside the flip chart, you will have the people who follow in your footsteps and what they see. You will also have other footsteps, larger or smaller, of the influential people YOU follow who have impacted where your own feet have walked.
✿ The third item will be what you want to be remembered for. What will your legacy be? Will it be like Mr. Manning’s ducks? Or Mrs. Phippen’s pink? Or Mrs. Bullock’s love of books? Will it be like Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse or DisneyLand? Or Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Dream.” What will your legacy be? This can be an object, an idea, or place, but you must bring some item to represent it, to symbolize it, and you must be able to explain it.
This project will be due
December 5th for A days
& December 6th for B days.

Book Write #1 Questions

If you are missing your first book write, please answer the following questions in full sentences, using paragraphs.

Paragraph one: 

Why did you choose your book? Why this particular book?

Tell me about the process you went through to find your book, get the book itself, and then bring to class. 

Paragraph two:

How do you know this book is on your reading level? Will this book be a S-T-R-E-T-C-H for you? Why? or why not? How long do you think it will take you to read?

Paragraph three:

What do you already know about your book? What kind of book is it? (Genre) What do you know about your author? Have you read anything else by your author?

What did we do today?

You should now have turned in Article of the Week #1. See the post below if you have lost your copy.

You should have received Article of the Week #2. It is on GREEN paper, and it is due 11/13 (B) or 11/14 (A). It is called "Civil War vet finally to be laid to rest" and is about Peter Jones Knapp.

Here is a youtube.com video about it.

Directions for article of the week are these:

1. Read the entire article.

2. MARK the article and comment, make connections, question, and predictions, etc. as you read. This is called annotating.

3. Talk about the article with someone else.

4. Write a paper about the article. 

• The paper should have a CLAIM
• 3 paragraphs
• Each paragraph should have 2 pieces of evidence (details, facts, quotes, etc.)
• Each piece of evidence should have some warrant (explanation) to back it up.
• There should be a concluding statement.

You should also have notes on "Meditation 17." (We have reviewed this twice).

You should have notes on "The Bells" (we took these and reviewed these for 2 days).

You should have a timeline we will continue to work on.

Calendar and other things

Here's a list of new items:
November 1 & 4
We discussed
Meditation 17  and "The Bells" and "I am a Rock" (Yes, by Simon & Garfunkle).

Tomorrow, the homework is THIS article of the week called "Losing is good for you" from the New York Times.

Due November 5th for B days and November 6th for A days!

Paragraph about "Story of an Hour"

You should have written this paragraph about "Story of an Hour" and turned it in with your CSI notes and your study guide.

Items you may need

Poem of the Week TPFASTT page
Reading Log
Book Report Directions

Parent/Teacher Conference Week...

This week, we read "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. 
We discussed verbal irony, dramatic irony and situational irony.
We also completed this study guide and did this CSI activity.

As you are probably aware, midterm is this next Friday, September 20. Students have just completed their midterm exam in my class which consisted of literary terms and an essay. The second half of the term will cover the rhetorical triangle and two new genre and a follow-up final term essay.

The homework this weekend is an article of the week (LINK HERE). Students should discuss this article with adults around them. They may also consider watching the speech the President gave to Congress or reading additional articles (as you choose) to form their own opinions. A 1 page paper, 400-500 words, is expected. See directions on the assignment.

For other concerns, Parent/Teacher Conference is Tu/Wed September 24 or 25, or you may send me an email if you can't make it to Parent/Teacher Conference.

Your Weekend Homework

Read "Article of the Week," mark it, discuss it, write about it.
DUE Monday (a) or Tuesday (b).

Things you may not know

1. There will be a TEST on the vocabulary from "There Will Come Soft Rain" and the post-apocalyptic/dystopian notes we took in class. It will be Thursday for A day classes and Friday for B day classes.

2. Students will also be asked to write a 5 paragraph essay. We have discussed the essay format (today in class) and it will look like 

3. Students are expected to read 20 minutes every day in class. They will have an assignment with that reading. EVERY STUDENT NEEDS a BOOK EVERY DAY!!

4. MIDTERM is NEXT WEEK (Friday, September 20)
5. Parent Teacher Conference is September 24th & 25th

Late Work

I have recorded late work that was in the correct file and had a name on it. Skyward was spotty all weekend, and I hope I can get in the extra credit for flex tomorrow (when I expect Skyward to be better).

What happens in Week 4?

See the A/B calendar here.

You will have an Article of the Week. You should receive it on Monday (B) or Tuesday (A).
You will NEED A BOOK to read each day this week for Individual Silent Sustained Reading.
You will need to TURN IN your COMPLETED STUDY GUIDE for "There Will Come Soft Rains."

Flex Time this week:
Tu  "Catalyst" by Linkin Park
W   "Mr Roboto" by Styx
Th  Make-up assignments:
         Remember that after 1 week, things are 50% credit only.
F    Article of the Week

Friday (& Monday) Silent Sustained Reading

• Today we had "inner voice" discussion "What happens to you when you read?" 

We folded a sheet of paper into 4 and created something that looks like this.

Then we read for 20 minutes, stopping, and asking questions like this.

• Then we graded the study guide for "There Will Come Soft Rains." Link HERE
• DISCLOSURE DOCUMENT HERE if you need to download a copy.

All In-class Writing Assigned (with links)

Day 1: Steve Jobs (link) 
                  How  to address an envelope (link)
Day 2: Anais  Nin/C.S. Lewis (link)
Day 3: Carl Sagan (link)

There Will Come Soft Rains

• You should have received the full text in class. HERE is a link.
• HERE is Leonard Nemoy reading it.
• You should have a study guide. HERE is the pdf.  HERE is the Word doc.
• We covered the poem by Sara Teasdale of the same title available HERE.
• We discussed it using the AP model TP-FASTT

You should have received the Poem of the Week. HERE is the link called "The Children's Hour" by Henry W. Longfellow.

This is it, The Apocalypse

We started today (August 28 & 29) by turning in your signed disclosure documents. You will get these back next Tuesday/Wednesday.

Then we had a discussion on this quote by Carl Sagan:

Your questions were here.

Next we discussed Cornell Notes, and took some on Post-Apocalyptic & Dystopian literature.

We reviewed what you should have turned in...

Tonight was "Back to School" night, and it was a pleasure getting to meet your parents! 

Week 2

Today, we talked about these quotes from Anais Nin and CS Lewis (reading & writing). You should have taken home a disclosure document!! :o) If you did NOT, please come and get another one!

We also discussed the 50 book challenge (see the prezi for the full discussion).

You should bring a book and your signed disclosure document to class next time!

Welcome to the 1st day of 9th Grade English!

Today we started with the Big Blue Bouncing Ball activity
which was our way of getting to know everyone in the class. If you missed class today, you may make up the activity at any
extra credit flex activity next week on Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday.
     There is a seating chart based on your first name, so if you don't know your number, get it from Mrs. Phippen.

Next, we talked about your hopes and dreams for this year. We talked about this quote from Steve Jobs which you got to glue on to a piece of paper. You should have written a letter to yourself based on the prompt.

Then we talked about how to address an envelope. You should have folded your letter to me and stuck it in the envelope and put it into the in basket for your class.

You also received directions for your English Binder. They look like this.

50 Book Challenge!

Make a Donation--Tax FREE!

Small or large, kids need things every year. I have almost 250 students each year that need great books that are readily available for personal reading, and a thriving in-class library is one of the easiest ways to meet this need. How can you help?

• Some kids come without paper or pens
Look around your house and see if there are any books you'd like to donate to us since we'd be very happy and thankful to accept them. In fact, any donation is welcome and much-needed.
• If you are interested in making any contribution, please consider printing out and mailing a donation form to the Alpine Foundation. Just indicate "Pleasant Grove Junior High School" and "Jillian Phippen's classroom" from the check boxes on the right hand side to ensure that your donation benefits your student's classroom.
• See if our class has a project you can help fund on our Donorschoose.org page. Any donation to our projects, large or small, will help immensely!